Hildre will play his part as the ostensible patient, keeping note of the sensation of the doctor's attention, what steps of the examinations prompts how much attention on what parts of the body, what the character and intensity of the attention is, so on and so forth. Once that's done, he'll prompt the doctor begin his meditation, and if the meditative state isn't too fragile, ask the doctor to repeat the examination while still meditating.

The doctor makes his best effort to keep his mind clear, going thorough the motions of a medical examination with a clear mind. He's constantly confused by the idea, but manages to mostly keep his mind off the person standing in front of him. Following a quick meditation session, he has his mind mostly focused on the sensations around his body and the sense of stillness pervading his mind, although there's an undercurrent of confusion; he has no idea what he really should be doing.

"It is an unnatural, maybe even paradoxical state of mind," Hildre says without audible prompting, simply reacting to his perception of the doctor's reaction towards the end of his second run through the faux-examination. "But you're capacity for it is strong, as I hoped it would be. It will still take time, but I am confident that you will be able to achieve the separation between action and thought that we need, if you decide to continue helping us. Regardless, I believe between myself and Roland we will be able to handle the weight of all of the children being examined."

"Should we get on with that, or is there anything else you all need to know first?" Malou asks the locals.

"There isn't anything else I need to know", says the doctor. "And I'm fine as well", says Charon. "So, you should probably just go off to help the children with all of their needs."

The four all nod to that, but before heading back to the camp Malou asks Charon, "Any idea when we should expect news about the move to the island farmstead?"

"It shouldn't take more than a few days to find a ship, and a few more days after that to get it over here. A much bigger issue would be the logistics problems of getting you somewhere without the captain noticing, if so many of you are so extremely vulnerable to attention."

"We'll try and think of some more possibilities for keeping attention off of the children during the move in the mean time," Malou replies.

That'll be the last thing the four bring up before making their way back through the woods (presumably with the doctor in tow).

The doctor just follows them quietly, walking in an even, steady rhythm, thinking of the huge range of sensations arising every moment in his consciousness.

It's a good ways to the restroom that the campsite, and it's getting pretty late (especially for Rom and Thea, who've been doing a bit more hiking today than either of them is used to), so they can break for a bit and have some of the food and drink before beginning the check-ups.

For the doctor, he might be somewhat disbelieving of the idea that he's surrounded by over six dozen children with ages ranging from 4 to 18. He can hear quiet sounds of habitation, but if he's ever encountered children in these numbers before then it might almost be disturbing how quiet and still they must be, for them to not just be less than totally raucous, but so subtle that he can actually make out most of the natural sounds of the forest over the calm breaths and gentle footsteps emanating from the camouflaged camp.

"Unless you believe we should do otherwise, we'll begin with the oldest children first. They're the most experienced and capable of handling the attention in case something goes wrong," Hildre says as they come to the end of the break.

The doctor nods. "I think it'd be best for you to take them to me, one at a time. Do you think there are any precautions I should be taking?"

The elderly man considers that for a moment. "If you feel your mind wandering in a way that the child is reacting poorly to, and you're not in the midst of something which cannot tolerate interruption, I suggest focusing on either your own body, or one of Marie-Louise, Romuald, or Theodora. None of them bear the affliction, so there's no worry about it causing them harm at any point."

Without a word, a man in his early twenties, dark skinned and a shaved head rises up from the camouflage, a teen girl with pale skin and short hair a similar shade of blonde as Thea's following behind.

"Oh, yes, also," Hildre continues, "It likely won't be relevant for the teens, but as we move on to the younger children, you may notice some...distortions in your cognition, as a result of what Roland and I will be doing to mitigate the harm. We'll be doing our best to be unnoticeable, but if you do detect something, try to not worry unless it's interfering with your task or causing you some distress, in which case you should focus away from child being examined as I mentioned earlier, and Roland and I will stop what we're doing so that you can recover and we can work out what went wrong. With that in mind, whenever you're ready, give us a count-down before beginning the examination."

The doctor is mildly confused for a moment, but eventually decides he's ready, counting to three before he starts examining the children to find out whether they have any illnesses he can do something for.

Hildre and the younger man (Roland, presumably) both close their eyes as the doctor counts down, and as he begins his examination, the girl also closes her eyes and tenses up just a bit. Aside from that, this first examination goes about normally. This girl seems quite healthy, no infections or injuries or lingering illnesses. There's the very tail end of altitude acclimatization, but she's otherwise in pretty much perfect health.

The doctor, in a state of intense flow and concentration, moves from one child to the next, merely thinking about any condition and keeping his mind off the children themselves.

In this manner, the examinations progress. The children face it with bravery, and seem to come away largely unharmed, even the youngest ones. Hildre and Roland, however, certainly seem to wear down over time, with Hildre eventually calling for another break after about half-way through, and nearly collapsing to the ground by the end of the second half. Roland, while not quite so powerfully effected, is still panting, drenched in sweat, and shaking from the exertion by the end.

Still, the cognitive distortions that Hildre feared did not ever seem to materialize. A few of the youngest are recovering from coughs, likely caused by a small amount of smoke inhalation going from Malou's story of what happened to the orphanage they once lived in, combined with the stress that fleeing put them under. One 12-year-old girl also has a cough, though it appears to be from a chest cold rather than the smoke. There are several with small scrapes or bruises, likely from hiking around the forest or constructing the camouflage for their tents. Otherwise, they all seem healthy.

It's quite a relief that none of them are particulary sick or injured! Again trying to keep his mind off the children themselves, he bandages up their scrapes and bruiss. He also orders drone delivery to give him a few inhalers that'll be able to ease the coughs from smoke inhalation among some of the children. "Do you think I should leave for now?" he asks some of the adults. "I think I should keep my distance when I'm not needed."

Hildre nods. "It would be good to let your own mind rest. I'd understand if you decided to pass this responsibility off to another, but if you don't and would allow it, I would like to arrange some later time for Roland and me to come by and help with further training, which will hopefully make maintaining the necessary state of mind less effortful."

"I'd be happy to have some more training with you, but I think I'll drive off back home, yes. See you again!" The doctor starts walking off, wanting to return to his apartment. He's totally exhausted after keeping his mind blank for so long.

Hildre (as best he can with his remaining stamina) and Malou will wave goodbye to the doctor, followed a moment later by Roland, Rom, and Thea.

The group probably won't reach back out to anyone that night. The children (or at least the ones who are still awake, as well as Roland, Rom, and Thea) will marvel at the delivery drones when they arrive, and the medicine put away along the preparations for tomorrow's breakfast.

It takes longer for everyone to get settled for bed, naturally since this is most of the children's first camping trip and much further from home than any of them have ever been, but eventually all of them are soundly asleep. The adults sleep in shifts, to make sure that nothing unexpected happens overnight.

The inhalers are all distributed along with food in the morning, and aside from some of then young ones having trouble getting the hang of breathing in the medicine rather than just spraying it into their mouth, there doesn't seem to be any further trouble on that front.

Eventually, the time comes (according to Rom's timepiece, which they synchronized with the clock on Charon's fancy mobile picture-phone yesterday) for Malou and Hildre to head off to the edge of the woods meet back up with the locals' ambassadors, to receive any news that's broken overnight or during the morning.

The only idea they've had since yesterday about moving the children is to try moving them over a longer period in small batches, which might let them be more stealthily moved, and will regardless make holding off the attention of unwitting observers less strenuous for Hildre and Roland. Charon mentioned that it'd probably be a few days before significant developments with the move, so hopefully they have more time to come up with something clever to make it less of an ordeal.

Charon nods at the idea. "Moving small groups of children, together with cargo, on big ships, would probably be the least straining option available, even if it takes quite a bit of time. I think it's an excellent idea. That being said, is there anything you need us to supply you with, or will the approach we took yesterday be sufficient going forward?"

"Reading material would be good," Malou mentions, waving the little notebook-lexicon they've been using to make communication feasible. "This suffices for us, but I expect it would be good for the children to learn the local languages themselves, particularly once they come of age and move out from under my roof."

"Perhaps some games or play-toys as well," Hildre adds. "We didn't have time to gather them from the old orphanage, and I imagine that once the novelty of camping in a new and unfamiliar place wears off the children will be hungry for fun."

"Books, fit for learning the language, and games can happily be provided! We have a huge breadth of card games available, I'll send over a folding table fit for playing together with a few of the more accessible card games to play, as well as a few simple and fun books for the children to learn our language from."

Malou nods to that, then continues, "A weather report would be helpful as well, at least if there's any rough weather expected."

"Certainly, although you have no worries about that at present. Do I head off so I can come back with some books, and some cards? Or is there more I need to know?"